Overnight success is rare, and sometimes, it takes four years.

When JPEGs hit the mainstream in 2021, Curio Cards and other early NFT collections suddenly exploded. Artwork that had been forgotten, buried inside Ethereum contracts and IPFS servers, was now highly prized by a new generation of digital collectors.

Despite initially failing to sell out, a number of strategic lessons can be learned from Curio Cards’ initial execution — before CryptoPunks — long before NFTs had fame.

These insights have only become clear with the passage of time, through the stories of the people originally involved.

Just launch

Being a perfectionist can mean missing your mark.

In the case of Curio Cards, taking another month to fine-tune the website or reevaluate their marketing plan would’ve literally meant failing to make history. But it was because they launched before CryptoPunks, that Curio Cards was meaningful, and drew attention from collectors in search of the first Ethereum-based art collection.

Not only does launching quickly mean getting to market faster, but also getting feedback first too. Sometimes pondering over every detail is counterproductive. This echoes the startup mantra of “ship early”: deliver a product and then improve with every new version.

“That’s the main thing,” Travis Uhrig, one of the Curio Co-founders, explains in a talk with TokenMinds, “if you have an idea, what’s the quickest possible way you can get it into people’s hands to see what they think of it? Because you can imagine all day long what it’s going to be — you don’t know until people interact with it.”

Do just enough, right

Not being a perfectionist is one thing, but sometimes, less really is more — as long as you’ve put all the pieces together to make it work.

Mad Bitcoins, who had read several business and startup books before co-founding Curio Cards, explains how it was an mvp, “a minimum viable product”. He adds, “We got as little as we could together that we thought would make the project work.”

Being bootstrapped and relying on the release of the first ten cards to fund the company’s efforts meant there was nothing more than the bits and pieces needed: the vending machines and a Curio wallet for purchasing the cards. Marketing unfolded via posts on forums and live YouTube videos hosted by the founders celebrating the launch of new cards on New Card Tuesdays.

These small efforts did little to accelerate the project’s success, but certainly contributed to the lore — and even to Robek World becoming a fan, before becoming one of the contributing artists.

Another smart decision was choosing to build on Ethereum, instead of building their own blockchain. Mad Bitcoins adds that because “Ethereum kept going into the future, people were able to find and then recognize and appreciate our work.”

Try something people don’t understand (yet)

Although four years might seem long, Robek says he’s shocked it didn’t take longer, because he anticipated “a ten-year timespan.”

In 2017, crypto went on a bull-run, but money wasn’t being thrown at tokens that had data tied to them. ICOs (initial coin offerings) were lighting up the trading desks instead; currencies sold as a “stake” in a project, which often offered nothing more than a whitepaper and “roadmap”.

But investors couldn’t grasp the concept of art being attached to the token. Despite the free-flowing market, digital collectibles like “Curio Cards” were radically different, and therefore harder to understand, which meant no one wanted to buy them. While being counter to the trend set up Curio Cards to prosper in the long run, they were simply too early to capitalize on the short-term crypto hype.

Even baseball card collectors — a potential target audience which Mad Bitcoins himself is part of — objected to the idea of collecting on-chain collectibles at first. Buyers were used to collecting physical items, and the idea of owning a JPEG outright didn’t yet make sense. Ironically, many NFT critics threw around the “right-click-save” joke in 2021, proving how years later, digital ownership was (and may still be) hard to grasp.

At least Uhrig can now put into perspective the change in times and perception of value:

“In 2017, I was going around explaining to everyone what an NFT was. In 2021, I no longer had to do that.”

The world had caught up and the idea had actually paid off.

Stick around

Because success usually takes time, the ride is guaranteed to be bumpy. Even though bull markets come and go, you don’t have to disappear from the space just because you got “a real job.” While sorting your life out, it can help not to vanish into obscurity, simply because of the permanent nature of the blockchain. As times change, the data is immutable, giving interesting projects the opportunity to be revitalized just because they existed, waiting for someone to discover them.

The Rediscovery Party celebrating Curio Cards re-emergence in 2021.

While Curio Cards did seemingly vanish from the conversation in 2018, the website was kept running so the project could easily be found, and flourish from the attention 2021 brought with it.

Once again, as crypto and NFT markets grind through a bear market, NFT and other projects would do well to stay present, or at least keep some kind of community and social activity alive. Doing so ensures you’re positioned to participate and ride the next waves of attention to all-time highs.

Make your art everyday

One way to stick around is to keep creating daily. Mad Bitcoins considers this instrumental to his success, having replicated a path adopted by other prolific creators like Beeple and Mr. Beast.

“I think it’s important to make your art,” he tells TokenMinds. “I especially like Beeple, or that ‘song-a-day guy’, where they just make their art every day.”

Consistently creating pays off down the line, even if progress is slow, or appears non-existent. Mad Bitcoins, who has grown his YouTube channels significantly over the years, reiterates the importance of keeping going, and “publishing your work, even though you might get no comments, or negative comments.”

Beeple’s Everydays series sale at Christie’s for $69 million in March 2021 propelled the NFT market to stratospheric heights. Yet the artist’s daily work has continued and become a timely, mostly humorous, side-commentary on crypto and current events. This dedication to his digital art craft — which goes back thirteen years — links him forever with the emerging legion of artists and creators launching new projects, maintaining his relevance as more than just a symbolic NFT “father-figure.”

Collaborate

Perhaps one of the most enjoyable aspects of art is the potential to make something together.

Curio Cards was always intended as a community art project; Robek, who was the second fan, realized this intention, when he became the first contributing community artist.

Seven artists make up the Curio Cards roster. None knew each other prior to the project, and only after the Rediscovery, did some finally meet.

Now, each artist (except Thoros of Myr, who is entirely unknown and has no online presence), has garnered their own niche and audience in their respective spheres of influence. And combining these influences creates a convergence of multiple potential markets.

The same thinking applies to collaboration between projects; crossovers tap into both audiences, and potentially new ones, while creating new and unique intellectual property (IP). Curio Cards’ collaboration with historical NFT project MoonCats is one such example, where a special pixelated accessory for each Mooncat was produced based on the iconic Curio Cards Apples card.

As the saying goes, a rising tide lifts all boats — and if the digital art market is to grow, then collectively shining a light can spark conversations in unexplored corners.

If all else fails, let it go

Mad Bitcoins has joked that the “key to success is putting up a project, waiting five years, and it becomes a success all on its own.”

At least by having your work on-chain, you know it can be found.

If you tried your best, and no one bought it, move on and do better. Leave it to the blockchain fates, and curious minds, who may dig up your old files sometime down the road. The surprise of being an overnight success will be worth it.